Former Illini Devon Witherspoon delivers key plays in Seahawks’ Super Bowl win
Former Illinois defensive back Devon Witherspoon helped lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 29–13 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, playing a key role in a dominant defensive performance Sunday night.
Former Illinois defensive back Devon Witherspoon added another line to a rapidly growing résumé Sunday night.
Witherspoon served as a captain for the Seattle Seahawks and played a central role in a 29–13 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, helping anchor a defensive performance that controlled the game from start to finish.
Seattle’s defense set the tone early, and Witherspoon was part of it almost immediately. He recorded a first-quarter sack that halted one of New England’s few promising drives, and the Seahawks rarely let the Patriots find any rhythm after that. Late in the fourth quarter, Witherspoon delivered the game’s decisive moment, forcing a strip sack that was recovered and returned for a touchdown, effectively ending any remaining suspense.
He finished with four tackles, three quarterback hits and the sack-fumble, continuing a postseason run in which Seattle relied heavily on him in high-leverage situations. Two weeks earlier, Witherspoon broke up a pair of end-zone passes during a fourth-quarter goal-line stand in the NFC Championship Game and made the final tackle to seal a win over the Rams.
The Super Bowl capped another strong regular season for the former Illini standout. In his third NFL year, Witherspoon earned Pro Bowl honors again and was named second-team All-Pro after helping lead the league’s top scoring defense. He totaled 48 tackles, seven passes defended and one interception during the regular season and now has 249 tackles, 32 pass breakups, two interceptions and two forced fumbles through three NFL campaigns.
For Illinois, Witherspoon’s championship continues a recent stretch of alumni success at the sport’s highest level. An Illini has now won a Super Bowl in four consecutive seasons, a run last matched by the program in the mid-2000s. Witherspoon became the 28th former Illinois player to earn a Super Bowl ring.
His rise has been steady rather than sudden. Witherspoon arrived in Champaign as a lightly recruited prospect out of Pensacola (Fla) Pine Forest. After first enrolling at Hutchinson Community College, he joined the Illinois program shortly before the beginning of fall training camp in 2019. He contributed early on special teams, worked into the rotation as a freshman, and gradually developed into one of the nation’s top defensive backs.
By the end of his Illinois career, he was a consensus All-American, Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year and the highest-drafted defensive back in program history when Seattle selected him fifth overall in 2023.
Now three seasons into his professional career, Witherspoon has established himself as a fixture in Seattle’s secondary and a consistent presence in big moments. On Sunday, that consistency showed again, this time on the NFL’s biggest stage.
